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Anthony Behar/Sipa via AP Images President Donald Trump's inauguration ceremony, January 20, 2017 democracy_rules.jpg P resident Donald Trump faces danger on multiple fronts as federal subpoenas and convictions pile up , and House Democrats dive in to scrutinize everything from his Russia dealings to his business practices, bank records, and tax returns. But Trump’s biggest legal peril may come from offenses that, while unsexy and often overlooked, make the simplest, strongest case against him: campaign-finance violations. It was illegal campaign spending in the form of secret hush money that will soon send Trump’s ex-lawyer Michael Cohen to jail. The Trump campaign’s alleged violations range from soliciting foreign money and assistance , breaking disclosure rules , and illegally coordinating with not one but two super PACs that backed him. The latest political money disclosures implicating Trump, however, could prove the most damaging. The Trump Inaugural Committee has faced...

AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi talks to reporters during a news conference at the Capitol. democracy_rules.jpg W hen the House approved a package of rules changes at the beginning of this year aimed at making Congress work better, not many people took notice. It’s easy to see why. House Democrats unveiled their new rules alongside a sweeping democracy reform bill that would overhaul the political money, ethics lobbying and voting rules. Inevitably, Democrats’ “For the People Act” overshadowed their new procedural rules, as did the government shutdown that dragged on for 35 days. But Democrats’ efforts to improve Congress as an institution, making the House more efficient, productive, transparent, and accountable, could prove as important in their own way as their more ambitious anti-corruption package. These House rules changes look more timely than ever in the wake of the recent shutdown, which has left lawmakers eager to find some way—any way—to...

AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California holds the gavel after being sworn in at the Capitol. democracy_rules.jpg H ouse Democrats’ sweeping anti-corruption bill may be dead-on-arrival in the GOP-controlled Senate, but HR 1 is already having an impact outside the Beltway. New York legislators who just approved a slate of election reforms, including early and absentee voting and curbs on corporate political spending, had one eye on the democracy reforms that Democrats have placed front and center on Capitol Hill. Still further reforms, including statewide public financing, are now on the agenda in New York, which is just one of several states pursuing voting and campaign-finance changes in 2019. These follow hard on a string of democracy-related ballot wins in November. The success of the democracy movement at the state level demonstrates why HR 1 matters well beyond messaging and symbolism, and regardless of its fate in the Senate. The ambitious omnibus bill...

AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer speak to the media in Washington. democracy_rules.jpg A key question for House Democrats who plan to vote on a sweeping package of democracy reforms as their first order of business is whether they will be content to stop at scoring political points, or will press on to genuinely fix what’s broken in public life. Inevitably, the House’s pending vote on the reform package known as H.R. 1 will be at least in part symbolic, given the likelihood that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will refuse to bring it up for a vote. McConnell’s foreseeable opposition will put the GOP on record as the Party of No—no small-donor matching funds, no disclosure, no fixes to voting rights, ethics or gerrymandering—a stance that places Republicans at odds with most Americans , and that hands Democrats a politically potent talking point. But Democrats could face their own political backlash if they...

John Hart/Wisconsin State Journal via AP Opponents of the Wisconsin legislature's lame-duck actions rally in Madison. democracy_rules.jpg R epublicans in Michigan and Wisconsin who have moved aggressively to steamroll voters and strip power from incoming Democratic officials appear confident that they will pay no political price, and many analysts seem to concur . After all, state legislators won’t face re-election for another two to four years, and electoral maps gerrymandered to heavily favor Republicans won’t be redrawn until after 2020. That’s a long time in politics, and it would be easy to assume that protesters now crowding the state capitals in Lansing and Madison will by then have moved on. But that assumption overlooks two powerful lessons from the recent midterms: One, that gerrymandering can backfire , particularly when the political winds shift dramatically. And two, that voters are increasingly fed up with assaults on democracy. The more Republicans take aim at voting...